Music

A casual listen to Thomas Rhett‘s “Country Again” might lead you to wonder if the former ACM Entertainer of the Year had begun to doubt his authenticity amid his massive success. But it’s quite the opposite for the second-generation country star: the title track of his latest album is more of a reflection on what he learned during the pandemic.

“For me, the word country means simple,” TR explains. “That would be my favorite synonym for the word, and I think that ‘Country Again’ is that in a nutshell.”

“With the year that we had in 2020,” he continues, “I think a lot of us were forced to not do what we do for a living and forced to slow down and really forced to recognize, like, what are your blessings in life and what are you grateful for?”

For Thomas Rhett, the answers are close to home.

“For me, that was my family, and for me, that was the outdoors: that was getting outside again, going fishing again, going hunting again, going out west and hiking with my family,” he says. “Those are the things that I used to love to do so much, and then life just kind of got in the way.”

The second single from Country Again: Side A is a reminder for us all to not lose sight of the “simple” things.

“I think a lot of us have just been grinding without realizing how hard we’re actually working,” TR points out. “And hard work is great, but I do think every now and then you can slow down and just smell the roses for a second.”

“And that’s what last year was for me,” he adds, “which is kind of where the inspiration for ‘Country Again’ kinda came from.”

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Tai Verdes broke through on TikTok with his viral hit “Stuck in the Middle.” Now the 25-year-old California native has tens of millions of streams, a record deal and a radio hit with “A-O-K.” Tai says it all happened because he decided to challenge himself.

“I went in knowing that I wanted to make my TikTok a promotional app — I just didn’t know for what,” explains Tai. “When I saw Curtis Waters do a dance to his song [‘Stunnin’] and it went viral, I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that dance. But I still think I can make myself go viral with a song, by just putting out content and promoting it.'”

So, after honing his vocal skills for several months, Tai posted “Stuck in the Middle” on TikTok last year, and, yes, it went viral. That led to a deal with Arista Records, and his debut album, TV.,

“[ It’s] kind of awesome that I just tried something and it worked…it all came to fruition,” says Tai.

As for “A-O-K,” it’s about keeping a positive outlook, and treating each day as though it could be your last.

“You have to be like, ‘If this is going to be the last day, I might as well think that this is a great day,’ because that’s way more fun,” he explains.

Later this month, Tai’s playing Lollapalooza; in September, he’ll tour with Chelsea Cutler and Quinn XCII, before headlining his own tour in November.  But right now, Tai feels like he hasn’t seen any actual proof that he’s, y’know, famous.

“Everything that’s happened to me is imaginary — these numbers are imaginary,” he laughs. “When I go to Chipotle now, the workers smile because they know who I am. So that’s probably it!”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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Aline, a new movie that just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, is based on Celine Dion‘s life. And even though Variety described it as “kooky” and predicted Celine herself would be both “flattered” and “horrified” by it, the film received a standing ovation at the legendary festival.

Aline is directed by and stars French comedian Valerie Lemercier as a musical sensation named Aline Dieu, who’s based on Celine. Lemercier, who’s 57, plays Aline from youth to adulthood.

The outlines of Aline’s life closely follow that of Celine’s: She becomes famous, marries her manager, does a Las Vegas residency and has three children after struggles with infertility. But some details have been changed “to be more cinematic and romantic,” says Lemercier.

Throughout, Aline lip-syncs to Celine’s songs — including “My Heart Will Go On” — but they’re actually being sung by a soundalike named Victoria Sio.

According to Variety, when the film ended, the audience at the premiere gave it a standing ovation that lasted for a full five minutes; one woman in the audience told Variety, “I was actually crying.”

But is Celine herself O.K. with this movie?  Lemercier tells Variety, “The first thing I did was give the script to her French manager. She read it and said it’s good for Celine; she said it doesn’t mock her. She could see how much I loved her.”

Lemercier adds, “That was the first thing I did, but Celine didn’t want to read anything. She didn’t see the movie.”

Lemercier, who’s never met Celine and has only seen her live once, then notes, “If I was Celine, I’m not sure I’d run to watch it.  I hope she will recognize something [of herself in the film], but she should do what she wants.”

Aline has yet to find a distributor in the U.S.

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Machine Gun Kelly‘s Tickets to My Downfall continues to disprove its name.

The Travis Barker-produced record, which dropped last September, is the biggest rock album of this year so far. That’s according to MRC Data, which combined traditional album sales, individual track downloads and on-demand streams to determine the top rock record at 2021’s midpoint.

While Tickets is nearly a year old at this point, the rest of 2021’s biggest rock albums are even older. Queen‘s Greatest Hits is number two on the list, followed by Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours, Elton John‘s Diamonds and Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits.

In terms of just pure album sales, Foo Fighters‘ Medicine at Midnight takes the cake for rock. Among all genres, Medicine is the ninth-best-selling album so far this year.

Meanwhile, Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” is the top rock song of 2021, measured by a combination of song sales and streams. MGK’s blackbear collaboration “My Ex’s Best Friend” takes the runner-up spot, followed by Fleetwood Mac‘s “Dreams,” AJR‘s “Bang!” and The Neighbourhood‘s “Sweater Weather.”

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A mural was unveiled Tuesday morning in Yonkers, New York commemorating hometown hero and late rapper DMX.

According to the City of Yonkers on Twitter, the mural was commissioned by the Yonkers Art coalition to restore an existing mural after local fans specifically asked for a DMX memorial. It was designed and completed by New York artist Floyd Simmons and features lyrics from X’s songs “School Street” and “Look Thru My Eyes.”

Ruff Ryders CEO Darrin Dee Dean and X’s fiancée, Desiree Lindstrom, were both in attendance at the mural’s unveiling near the Calcagno Homes housing complex on South Street, where X once lived. Lindstrom is also the mother of X’s five-year-old son, Exodus. 

“Extended blessings to the family of @DMX. Got Exodus and Dez with us,” Dean wrote on Instagram.

DMX, born Earl Simmons, died on April 9 at age 50 from a cocaine-induced heart attack, which decreased blood circulation to his brain. The Grammy-nominated rapper spent days on life support and never recovered. X’s posthumous album, Exodus, was released in May by his longtime friend, collaborator, and executive producer Swizz Beatz.

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Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album continues to be one of the highest-performing albums of 2021 thus far, in any genre, despite the controversy that has surrounded the singer for most of the year.

According to MRC Data’s 2021 Mid-Year Report, Morgan’s album outpaced every other country release so far this year by a wide margin, netting 2,108,000 equivalent album units sold. By comparison, the number-two album was Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get, clocking in with 740,000 — less than half of the equivalent album units that Dangerous returned.

Also in the top five country albums from this year so far is Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which earned 560,000 equivalent album units.

Thanks in part to sweepingly successful projects by artists like Morgan and Taylor, MRC Data reports a 13.5% uptick in overall music consumption during the first six months of 2021. Across all genres, music has seen an increase in audio streaming as well as vinyl LP sales growth. 

Other artists who’ve contributed significantly to the rise in consumption include Olivia Rodrigo, the singer-songwriter and actor who blazed into the pop world this year with her massive debut single, “Drivers License.”

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Olivia Rodrigo may be one of the biggest pop stars on the planet right now, but it may be a while before you see her on tour.

Industry sources tell Billboard that Olivia’s TV commitments on the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series are preventing her from hitting the road and performing her songs live. The show is currently in its second season and could potentially be renewed for a third.

While Olivia could conceivably sell out arenas as this point in her career, promoters are reportedly holding spring 2022 tour dates in 3,000-to-5,000-seat venues for her, so she can get some live experience before she graduates to bigger ones. She’s only had two major live performances so far: at the BRIT Awards and on Saturday Night Live, both this past May.

Insiders say tickets for those 2022 tour dates could go on sale this fall.

Reps for Disney and Olivia’s record company declined to comment to Billboard.

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2021 XXL Freshman Coi Leroy, Lakeyah, Morray and DDG sat down with XXL for their first roundtable interview to reflect on their rise to fame as emerging artists.

Coi says Billboard hits and platinum records are cool, but “I just think I’m not satisfied.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what [it’s] going to take for me to be satisfied, but I have to keep going. I’m appreciative, but I want more,” the “No More Parties” rapper says.

Coi Leray’s success took off after her Billboard Hot 100 single, “No More Parties,” was certified Platinum by the RIAA in May. A month before, Quality Control signee Lakeyah dropped her second mixtape, In Due Time, to follow her Time’s Up debut. Quality Control is also the home label to fellow rappers Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, City Girls and more.

Meanwhile, North Carolina native Morray closed out 2020 with a major co-sign from fellow North Carolina rapper J. Cole over his debut single, “Quicksand.” For his part, 23-year-old DDG leveraged his social media following to launch a successful music career and release his platinum “Moonwalking in Calabasas Remix,” featuring Blueface. XXL dubbed the song one of the best hip-hop remixes of the last five years.

Other rising artists on the 2021 XXL Freshman list include Flo Milli, Toosi, 42 Dugg, Blxst, Rubi Rose, Iann Dior, and Pooh Shiesty. 

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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Ivan Moody is a poet and he does, in fact, know it.

The Five Finger Death Punch frontman has announced Dirty Poetry, a collection of original poems accompanied by ink and watercolor illustrations by artist Blake Armstrong.

“Out of all the projects I’ve undertaken this is something truly out of the ordinary, completely unorthodox, and without ‘creative walls,'” Moody says. “It is by far the oddest thing I’ve ever done (and that’s saying something).”

Dirty Poetry is set to arrive in October from publisher Z2 Comics, which has previously worked with artists including Beartooth, Skillet, Alter Bridge, and Black Veil Brides‘ Andy Biersack.

Five Finger Death Punch released their latest album, F8, in 2020. A new record is currently in the works for 2022.

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